Your face could soon be your passport at Singapore's checkpoints

SINGAPORE - Instead of being screened by immigration personnel, travellers at Singapore's checkpoints could be cleared in future by a facial recognition biometric system - which will allow entry into the country at record time. Called the Flexi Immigration Clearance System, the project is the first of its kind in Singapore and will allow the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to toggle between automated and manned immigration counters. It will particularly benefit checkpoints that experience a high traffic, and the ICA plans to implement the technology at the coming International Cruise Terminal. This is one of a number of infocomm projects the public sector is embarking on and the Government gave a preview yesterday of an estimated S$1.1 billion worth of tenders it will award to the industry this year. The ultimate aim is to make infocomm technology a part of Singa...